


Hover Over the Hollow Boy

by prettyasadiagram



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Implied Child Abuse, Offscreen Violence, canon child abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-12
Updated: 2012-06-12
Packaged: 2017-11-07 13:05:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/431511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyasadiagram/pseuds/prettyasadiagram
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac has lived in Beacon Hills for five years now, and no one talks to him. He remembers moving to the town, being hopeful for a clean start, but if anything, it’s worse than before, because <em>here</em>, no one knows him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hover Over the Hollow Boy

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to thatdamneddame for the beta and for pushing me into this.
> 
> Note: This was written after the first two episodes of season two, so probably won't be compliant with episode 3. Oops. I guess spoilers for 2x01-2x02
> 
> There is reference to Isaac's abuse by his father, but nothing graphic.

Isaac wakes up, and for a split second, chooses not to think about the day. Chooses to dwell in his sleep-warm bed and enjoy the weight of his blankets and the softness of his pillow. Chooses to stay in his dream just a little bit longer, until he hears his dad in the kitchen down the hall and remembers that his arm and his face and his everything hurt, just not because he slept weird. And so Isaac wakes up for real this time, wakes up and plans how to enter the kitchen, eyes lowered, already fully dressed, ready to head out the door, and maybe this time he’ll be a bit faster than his dad’s eyes and make a clean escape before his dad realizes the dishes haven’t been done and Isaac’s clothes are more wrinkled than usual, because he hasn’t had time to do laundry.

He’s never fast enough.

 

+++

 

Isaac has lived in Beacon Hills for five years now, and no one talks to him. He remembers moving to the town, being hopeful for a clean start, but if anything, it’s worse than before, because _here_ , no one knows him. There is no Ms. Williams to notice that he’s walking more gingerly than usual. No Mr. Quinn to realize that this is the third week he’s sat out for gym. Here, no one knows that Isaac hates long-sleeved shirts, even though he wears them year-round; no one cares that Isaac is really good at history, that he understands the logic behind the philosophy of tyrants and dictators, because he sits in the back of the classroom, quiet like the dead, because in his experience being overlooked is better than being noticed.

As he walks into the cafeteria, Isaac realizes he hasn’t spoken to anyone in three days, apart from his dad. He has this fear that he’s slowly turning invisible, that one day he’ll wake up and see sunlight streaming through his hand, his whole body translucent and no one will notice, at least not until his dad realizes that there isn’t any food in the fridge and that the garbage hasn’t been taken out. He’ll assume that Isaac ran away, that his son finally broke under years of vicious, painful hate. 

This growing fear of his own invisibility lasts until the end of the day when he is nearly run over by that Stilinski kid from the lacrosse team. The pounding in his heart and the warm metal of the hood under his hand ground him back in reality, and when he locks eyes with Stilinski, he’s not sure who’s more surprised.

 

+++

 

You’d think that playing on the lacrosse team would make him some friends, but no. He’s second string, and while Danny might give him a nod of recognition on occasion, Jackson stares blankly during any encounter they have, and if Jackson ignores you, pretty much the whole lacrosse team ignores you. 

Things change when Scott makes first line. Jackson is more cutting and aggressive than usual, and in the back of his mind, Isaac thinks about revolutions and uprisings, about animals ripping each other apart for dominance. 

Nothing really changes for Isaac, except Stilinski keeps talking at him. 

 

+++

 

Isaac often spends practice idly calculating what it would take before he would actually get to play during a real lacrosse game. Thus far he’s decided that in the unlikely event that both Danny and Jackson are injured, he would be picked some point after Larry Dunwell but definitely well before Stilinski. 

He’s just come to this conclusion and is rationalizing that he doesn’t _really_ want anything to happen to anybody, he just wants to play, when Stilinski sort of collapses next to him on the bench. Isaac freezes.

“Hey, man—Isaac, right?” He barely waits for Isaac to nod, “I’m Stiles. I mean, my last name is Stilinski so everyone calls me Stiles, not that my name is Stiles Stilinski… even if Coach calls me Bilinski…. But hey! Looks like we’re bench buddies now, thought I should say ‘hey,’ so… Hey.” He waves awkwardly.

Isaac nods, unsure if he’s hoping or dreading that Stilinski—no, _Stiles_ —might expect more of a response. 

“Oh, and also, sorry about almost running you over the other day? Totally my bad—wasn’t paying attention. I think it’s something like 15% of car accidents occur in parking lots? The things you know, right? My dad was determined that I’d be a safe driver—I used to have to recite car stats before I could leave the house, weird, but surprisingly effective. Did you know that Mary Ward was the first person to die in a car accident in 1869? Run over by her own car. Bizarre—and this just became more morbid than anticipated. Um—did you know that there haven’t been wolves in California since 1924?”

Coach blows his whistle and practice is over. Stiles gets up and races into the locker room, waving over his shoulder and shouting something about heart rate monitors. 

Isaac honestly has no idea what just happened.

 

+++

 

As the year goes on, Isaac tentatively begins to call Stiles his friend. Not out loud, but in his head, when he’s planning out his conversations with his dad. _My friend Stiles did this today_ , or _Yeah, Stiles said he’d help me with this_ … Only, those conversations never happen outside the lacrosse pitch, and yeah Stiles chatters on during practice, and waves at Isaac in the halls, but that’s it. Just acquaintances, but what his dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

And that works until Isaac uses Stiles as an excuse to get out of the house and his dad finds out. 

The “standard” punishment for lying is twenty lashes with a belt; Isaac wears black shirts for three days and flinches as Stiles goes to nudge him when Scott spectacularly tackles Jackson. Stiles sort of freezes and moves on, but Isaac knows he knows something is up. Even as he wishes Stiles would ask, he’s grateful when he doesn’t press him for answers. 

 

Then Isaac meets Derek and everything changes.

 

+++

 

The next couple of days are a blur. Isaac remembers Derek giving him the bite, remembers the pain and the dry taste of the belt he clenched between his teeth to keep some dignity about him. He remembers walking through school in a daze, trying not to flinch at every slammed locker and casual shouting across the hall. And then he remembers his dad throwing dishes and wishing for once that the neighbors actually gave a shit, and he remembers bleeding for a few seconds until he healed, but mostly he remembers the look of confusion and growing horror on his dad’s face as he realizes _this is not normal_. 

Everything comes back into painful focus when he finds his dad’s body in the car, the door ripped clean off, the rain not quite able to wash away all of the blood. Isaac bites his lip until he tastes blood, and then takes off to find Derek, to find answers or at least a place to hide. 

 

During lacrosse practice the next day, he watches as Scott tackles every player, smelling them, and oh God—he knows. Or suspects. Or _something_. And normally he’d just feel threatened and cower, but now he feels threatened and angry, because who is Scott to hunt him down, and Isaac has no idea what to do with this emotion. He can feel his claws coming out and his eyes yellowing, and it’s his turn next, and when it comes to it, when he looks Scott in the eye and sees a pair of yellow eyes staring back, he wants to cry because even now, even as a freaking _werewolf_ , Isaac still isn’t strong enough to really fight back. 

When he sees the sheriff’s men walking over, the fear comes rushing back and that is more than enough to draw him back from the edge. He begs Scott not to tell, and the instinctive nod that Scott gives him in return makes him feel safe for a little while longer.

 

+++

 

It rapidly becomes clear to him that he might be in actual trouble when he’s locked into a holding cell and told, “Sit tight.” It’s still light out, but not for much longer, and Derek had warned him that the full moon is tonight and he’d be needing supervision. 

He can hear the precinct emptying until only a skeleton crew is left; there isn’t much crime going on in a small town on a Tuesday night. 

The pull of the moon is getting stronger, and Isaac tries some deep breathing exercises that his therapist told him to do in times of great stress, but eventually he can’t help himself; the pull of his bones stretching and shifting hurts more than anything his father ever did to him, and he dimly remembers Derek telling him the first shift is always the worst, but then everything is red and he’s ripped the cell door open and is bearing down on a guy in uniform. 

There’s a sick thud when the man’s head hits the wall, but he’s down and Isaac howls his triumph to the moon that he can’t see but he can feel, before turning his attention to the scrabbling noises and the thundering heartbeat that he hears behind him.

He sees Stiles and his wolf sees Stiles and instead of classmate, instead of friend, Isaac looks at Stiles and sees _prey_. He advances, claws still out, and he can smell Stiles’s fear and his heartbeat is the most enticing sound Isaac has ever heard, and Isaac is ready to attack when Derek bursts in and instantly turns and howls, eyes red and demanding that Isaac submit. 

Cowering against the wall, Isaac hears Stiles asking from far away how Derek did that, and he barely makes out Derek’s smug reply, “I’m the Alpha,” before Stiles is helping Isaac up and saying, “No—get out of here, both of you, if my dad finds this scene and either of you still here, he’s going to shoot first and ask questions later.”

Isaac mumbles out thanks, because good manners were impressed upon him from a very young age and he can hear his dad asking dangerously, _And what do you say,_ but Stiles laughs him off, “Don’t worry, you aren’t the first werewolf to try to kill me. Ask Scott about it sometime. Now _go_. I can handle my dad—just _go_.”

They go, leaving Stiles standing in the middle of the holding room looking a bit bereft, with the cell door behind him bent out of shape and an unconscious man in uniform crumpled against the wall. 

 

+++

 

The next day finds Isaac sits awkwardly on Derek’s couch as Derek paces back and forth, muttering angrily about the Argents and their so-called “code,” until he freezes and turns to the window, looking outside intently. They both listen as a car pulls up to the yard and then, “Hey! Sour-wolf, you home?” 

Derek grumbles, points at Isaac, “ _Stay_ ,” and then heads outside, slamming the door behind him.

From inside, he can hear Stiles assure Derek that he talked to his dad, Isaac won’t be in any trouble, he just needs to come and give his side of the story. And then, “Fine, since I can’t come in, will you give these to Isaac? It’s just some clothes, books, food, since I know you have none of those things here. Anyway, I’ve got to run, I’m grounded and all that,” and Stiles raises his voice, “Isaac—I’ll see you tomorrow for lacrosse practice, maybe this time I’ll get to play!”

Isaac can just imagine the cheeky wave Stiles gives Derek as his jeep rumbles off. It’s a good image. 

 

+++

 

Isaac goes back to the sheriff’s office the next day to tell his side of the story. His original plan was just to run away, even if Stiles said everything was fine, but Derek wouldn’t let him, and apparently, his word was final. 

Turns out, it’s really hard to press charges against a high school student when he was just defending himself against a man in possession of a needle full of an unknown substance, especially when said man had been posing as a police officer. At least, that’s the story that Beacon Hills rallies around. 

In any case, Isaac half expects Stiles to ignore him from this point on—his father’s voice is there in the back of his head, _you did attack him, there’s really only so much of your shit you can expect a person to take_ —but Stiles just cheerfully seats himself next to Isaac during practice. Even Scott nudges his shoulder and smiles when he runs out onto the field. 

It doesn’t matter that Jackson is still an asshole, or that he still hasn’t made first string, even with his new werewolf strength. He has Derek in his corner, and Stiles on the bench with him, talking nonstop, and it feels like everything might be ok.

**Author's Note:**

> Please do not repost this work in its entirety or share this work on third-party websites such as Goodreads.


End file.
